Earlier this year, I attended the FW Chamber‘s Media and PR Summit. I thought I might find some of the information to be new and anticipated it would be a good networking opportunity. Boy did I underestimate that summit! I learned valuable information in nearly every session and walked away impressed with the talent in our community.

Based on that experience, I highly recommend you attend the Social Media Summit July 18 from 8a-1p at the FW Chamber. Tickets are only $49 (early; $69 after 7/9) for members or $99 (early; $129 after 7/9) for non-members. Your registration includes lunch from Nelson’s and four sessions you select:

If you’re interested in my session, here’s a preview over on the Chamber’s blog.

If you’re convinced this event is something you shouldn’t miss, click here to register now. Personally, I can’t think of a better use of $50 for your business than to invest in growing your knowledge about a medium that isn’t going anywhere.

I saw this idea posted by Daniel Pink and I couldn’t help but connect it to the term “hacker.” Obviously, the date to submit a new name for this event (don’t say FedEx) has passed but that doesn’t mean the opportunity for your business to have it’s own Hack Day has passed as well.

Maybe you’re not Facebook with Hackathons. Maybe you’re not Atlassian with FedEx Days. But, you are YOU and you have a talented group of coworkers who are bound to have some ideas to share. Have you asked them? Are you willing to dedicate a full 24 hours for them to work on whatever they want and report back to their colleagues?

I can only imagine the possibilities if every organization had their own dedicated time to hack.

If you know me, you’re probably thinking “What?!” and I couldn’t agree more. That was until I heard Ben Barry speak at an AdFed event and Erik Deckers speak at a Cancer Services Social Media Luncheon. Now I’m convinced that I am in fact both a hacker and a writer.

What I learned about hacking from Ben Barry is that it can be another word to describe innovation. When you come up with a new idea, or a revision, or a new way to use something previously created, you are hacking. He and his Facebook coworkers do this regularly through Hackathons and some of the Facebook experiences you have each day are the result of these hacks.

If you read this blog regularly, you can tell by my grammar that I am not a professional writer. I don’t claim to be, nor do I plan to make my living through writing. That said, Erik Deckers encourages anyone who writes to consider themselves a writer and to do so with purpose. He gave really great tips at how to improve your writing and I’m looking forward to (hopefully) more purposeful writing. (Inside joke intended for those who also heard Erik speak.)

Oh how I love this reminder! It applies to everything doesn’t it? Work. Family. Friends. Community. Social media.

It also reminds me I need to finish my video application for #TEDxFortWayne! I’m applying to talk about the “Power of Two.” It’s a concept I believe applies everywhere, but nowhere more readily than my hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana. It’s not 6-degrees of separation here; it’s 2. And when everyone knows someone, how more important is the reminder to be nice. After all, the world is a small town.

And a big thanks to my friend Rachel for sharing this quote with me! Are there any quotes you’re loving lately? Something inspiring you pinned recently? I’d love you to share it here!

Oh my! Pinterest has been updated! Aside from the layout, font and placing the editing features more front and center, I don’t notice anything extremely different. I have noticed that it more strongly encourages me to post to Facebook and put Pinterest in my timeline. No need to thank me, Facebook friends, but I won’t be doing this.

Call me silly, but I don’t like to mix my social media much. There is a time and place for everything but I like to keep my pins of light fixtures on Pinterest, my videos of my kids on Facebook, links to work-related articles on LinkedIn and knowledge share on Twitter. Obviously, there’s always an exception to the rule and things get posted in several if not all locations. But like I said, I try to make it the exception.

Since the beginning of Google+, people have been saying it’s the new Facebook. And, with the recent changes to Facebook, people have picked up the rally cry again. I’m here to tell you they’re wrong.

Sure, Twitter was the new Facebook; Facebook was the new MySpace; LinkedIn was/is the new Rolodex; and Google+ is the new new. But these social media channels are just tools. Each has a unique set of features (despite their attempts to make it all vanilla) and each comes with upsides and downsides. If you’re going to use any of these, you need to be aware of how they’re unique and how you can use each of them to your advantage. (Don’t make them a disadvantage.)

The uniqueness of Google+ and Facebook is why one shouldn’t replace the other. Let’s think about it.

Google is known as the ultimate search engine. It’s a verb. If you want to find information, what do you do? You Google it. Google works because of it’s content rich sources.

Facebook on the other hand can take some time to search through. You’ve got to know exactly how a brand is named, or recognize a logo, or be able to discriminate between imposters and the real thing. If you’re looking for information on an individual, your fingers are crossed that their security settings are set such that you can gain more info than just their name and gender.

Google+ is not Facebook because with Google+ there are no security settings other than how well you utilize “Circles”. Pause for a moment. Think about your Facebook activity over the past week. Whatever you’re posting is because you’re comfortable with whomever is viewing it. You’ve accepted their friend request. You’ve adjusted security settings so that strangers don’t know your whereabouts or see your family photos. True?

If you think Google+ is your new Facebook, think again. If you had posted the same content on Google+ over the past week – photos, work rants, health concerns, etc. – it would all be accessible to anyone you’ve shared it with – Circles or Public. My guess is that on Facebook, you haven’t generally used their lists when posting content. If you plan to move to Google+, you need to start thinking about categorizing people into groups (aka Circles) and determining how you plan to interact with those Circles.

See what I mean in the most general terms by doing a little experiment with my name. Google “Heather Schoegler”. If you’re logged in to Google+, you’ll see my Google Profile listed first in the results. Smart on Google’s part, but potentially stupid on yours. (If you’re not logged in to Google, my Google Profile appears around the fifth position.) Now log-in to Facebook and search for me. You won’t find much unless you’re one of my 364 friends.

My advice, don’t make Google+ your new Facebook. Do sign-up for Google+. Do post there. But be mindful about what information you’re sharing with your Circles. You also have the option to post to “public”, but I’d caution against that in general “facebook-like” use.

Remember, whatever site you’re on, behave online as you would offline. This means not doing, saying, typing, messaging, texting, etc. anything you don’t want on the front page of the New York Times…or Google.

Scan Result: I felt a bit like I was watching the little engine that could while waiting for this scan result. At first, it went to the Macy’s site but then redirected to what says “Fall 2011 Collection”. Unfortunately, the end is this disappointing white screen. Ugh.

Review: Ok, let’s get past the result and just talk about the code. I’m excited to see QR codes go beyond the black and white squares. Kudos to Macy’s for thinking outside the box. Another smart move, using their social media icons to let us know there are many ways to engage with them.

You know what I like even more…after typing this post, I made a quick stop on Facebook and saw this Sponsored Post. How timely! What’s great about it (besides the coincidence)? They’re making the most of the star code and using it as a brand mark. Smart. Wish the result was as smart as the deployment.

Interesting. A magazine that focuses on outward appearance moves the advice to your online appearance. And, they share truth in a great, common sense approach that anyone from a novice to pro can use. Here are the highlights:

Put Your Best Face Forward – basically, photoshop out anything you don’t want to draw attention to. Um, yeah – this wouldn’t be first on my list. (And I could use a good retouch!)

Make eye contact – Their reason for this has to do with attractiveness on dating websites, so don’t completely disregard if you’re not on the market (like me). Consider this in broader terms. I’m more likely to trust someone who’s photo shows their eyes. Frankly, show your face…don’t use a logo or a cartoon or anything other than you.

Go ahead, google yourself – this should’ve been #1 on the list. Go, right now and type in your name on google.com. And then do it on socialmention.com. Pleased with the results? I hope so. According to CareerBuilder.com, 35% of employers have come across info that caused them not to hire a candidate.

Religion & Politics – the two status updates that are likely to cause people to unfriend you on Facebook according to University of Colorado Denver. That said, if you’re only friends with your ‘friends’, they should know where you stand on these issues and like you regardless. Perhaps it’s a good reminder to keep it on Facebook thought and think twice before posting on sites like LinkedIn where you may be connected with those who are not as familiar with you.

Be discreet when you tweet – think twice before tweeting every thought that crosses your mind keyboard. Do NOT share your location along with your tweets. (This isn’t just for ladies. Everyone needs to think about their personal safety and that of their friends, family, property, etc.) Also make sure it isn’t always about you and that you’re sharing content and linking to other pieces of information.

Keep (almost) everything private – use lists and other organization methods on social sites. Before you talk about that family member or coworker, remember who you’ve friended…it’s a small world after all. Consider who can see your photos personal activities. And don’t forget those photos that others post of you. When in doubt, un-tag!

Count your friends – according to Psychology Today, 302 is the magic number of Facebook friends where you don’t appear to be unlikeable but you also don’t appear desperate to collect friends. I always recommend to go back to your goal, and be sure your tactics (who you friend) match your goal. Perhaps 9,000 friends works for you because you’re trying to put your book on the best sellers list. As long as you’ve got a few of those thousands to actually call friends, you should be good.

Get a blowout – and here’s where they lost me and reminded me that I was reading a fashion mag. Really. Do I care that dating sites and young children prefer straight locks over curly in photos. Nope. Not a bit.

Scan Result: Yikes! “The file you requested could not be found”. See for yourself…

Review: How disappointing. Just slightly more disappointing than the pizza itself. On the box with the QR code, it invites you to follow Tony’s on Facebook and Twitter and gives their website as well. I wish the scan worked. I wish I didn’t have to doctor up the pizza either so I guess it’s par for the course with Tony’s.